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Salad Days: Getting It Taped

I've cleared the alliums from the raised beds and whilst I'm waiting for them to dry - so I can finally assess the results of my biochar experiment - I've started off some new leaves for our autumn salads.

To keep the spirit of experimentation going, I'm using some of the seed tapes which Simple Sowing have kindly given me to try. I've tried some seed tapes before and been quite critical of the limited range on offer, so it's great to have a much wider range to play with.

I used my trusty onion hoe* to mark out the rows and then watered them as I usually do when sowing seed. This turned out to be a wise move as the damp soil prevented the tape from blowing away when I laid it on top. Each tape is 1.67 metres long, so I had to trim it to size. I quickly learnt I need to keep my hands dry for this part of the operation, and for putting the tape back into its bag.

I've sown four types of lettuce ('Little Gem', 'Lollo Rosso', 'Marveille de Quatre Saisons' and 'Salad Bowl'), plus some rocket and a chicory, 'Treviso Rosso'. I also sowed some conventional seed - land cress, 'Bull's Blood' beet, 'Green in Snow' mustard and a new lettuce 'Intred'. It'll be interesting to see how evenly I've managed to sow these compared to the seed tapes**. I have another raised bed to clear soon which I'll use to try some turnips***, kale and quick grow radish seed tapes.

Elsewhere this month, I've used some of the bolting lettuce to make lettuce and ginger soup (nicely warming when the weather turned cooler last week) and I've also learnt tomato leaves are edible. Apparently a few leaves added to any tomato based dish really help to enhance the flavour. That seems reasonable, though I'm not sure I'll add them to a tomato salad...

How's your salad faring this month? Mr Linky is waiting below to take your salad related post, or else you just leave a comment as usual. Any experiences of using tomato leaves in cooking are also welcome.

* = it's much more versatile than that; it's probably the garden tool I use the most. And all for a mere £1.50 from Dorset Steam Fair a few years ago :)

** = on past form they'll be rubbish ;)

*** = our site has a reputation for not being able to grow turnips and swede, it'll be interesting to see if the combination of a raised bed and seed tape cures the problem.

Hi CJ - the great thing about salads is you can start at any time, even in January! Have a look at my 52 Week Salad Challenge Page for all kinds of tips and ideas if you need some help to get started. Now is the ideal time to sow things like mizuna, mustards, lamb's lettuce, land cress and chicories which will come good for late autumn and early winter :)

They're really easy to use, Lea and they're especially good for fiddly seed like lettuce. I'm pleased to see a range which has a lot more choice, most of what's on sale elsewhere is usually the crops and/or varieties I don't particularly want to grow.

Oops don't think I got the idea of the linky thing, I thought I was entering a comment - sorry early morning! Never used seed tapes so looking forward to seeing the results and edible tomato leaves is a new fact that I'll be taking away, thanks very much!

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* = it looked fine to me, despite the biblical amount of rain we experienced that week.